Some Favorite Lines

In a deluge of story submissions, only a few can be chosen, but many contain an allusion to admire or some other lovable trait. STANFORD’s editors liked these.

Titles
“Zombies with Money” describes a couple buried in side-by-side coffins with holes drilled “so that the husband’s right hand rested on his wife’s left shoulder.” The arrangement perhaps “contributed to their simultaneously waking up one night from a shared dream of the nearly hidden Spanish trunk.”
—James T. Anderson, ’57

“Pregret” gives a name to the nanosecond of hesitation before an ill-advised kiss—the instant in which “passion and conscience collide.”
—Kim Bromley, MA ’84

Grabbers
“Since the beginning your smile has been the end of me.”
—“The Perfect Day” by Andrew Hinderaker, ’01, MA ’02

“Margaret Smithon was carrying out the usual household tasks—those that she didn’t delegate to Zelma, anyhow—when she had an unprovoked intimation to open her front door.”
—“The Dog and the Rabbit” by Avital Binshtock, MA ’04

“My first Sunday as an altar boy, I was confronted with a major dilemma. Four dead flies were floating in the blood of Christ.”
—“Altar Boy” by Christopher Kemper, ’91

Quick Characterizations
“Write Up: 40th Reunion Class Book . . .
“I live on an oak-covered hillside overlooking the Napa Valley with Tom, my husband of 21 years, in a house we designed and built with our own hands. Recently our lives have been enriched by the arrival of Tom’s daughter and her 6-month-old.”
—“The Show Time Crew” by Ann Newton Holmes, ’62

“We called our sled Lei Kung. The god of thunder had six boys to drive his chariot, but we figured two was enough.”
—“Revolution” by Li Miao Lovett, ’90

“Then he started talking about all that stuff that makes him unpopular at dinner parties.”
—“My Investigation” by Hazim Ansari, ’92